The Public Investment in Atomic Power Development

Abstract

From the outset, the development of commercial atomic power has been a statutory responsibility of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. For the first seven years of its existence, the Commission operated under a declaration of policy which emphasized the development and utilization of atomic energy to improve the public welfare and increase the standard of living, with prior concern only for national security.l Five programs were prescribed in the organic legislation of 1946, the first three of which directed the Commission to assist research and development and the dissemination of information to encourage scientific progress. Medical, agricultural, and industrial progress were envisaged.2 The framework for acquisition of basic facts on matters of peaceable interest was clearly established. And specific provisions were included to bring industrial applications to the attention of Congress when their social effects could be more accurately assessed.3 Operating under the 1946 legislation, the Atomic Energy Commission rose to second place among federal agencies with respect to expenditures upon research and development, a position which it continues to hold. In fiscal year I953, the AEC obligated expenditures of $204 million for this purpose.4 The Department of Defense held a clear first place with obligated expenditures of $1.48 billion out of the total federal budget allocation of approximately $I.92 billion, while the Department of Agriculture held a lagging third place with $56 million. All research and development expenditures for all purposes are included-defense expenditures for military purposes, agricultural expenditures for peaceful aims, and atomic energy expenditures on a middle ground oriented toward both military and peaceful objectives. Although a mainstay in our defense efforts, atomic energy development has been conducted in accordance with a relatively new and commendable idea-that is, to develop at public initiative, from defense technologies, such commercial and peaceful applications as hold reasonable promise of improving the standard of living. Commercial (and military) applications are the end products of a series of research activities of increasing specificity. At the earliest and most general level is basic